Before the Pyramids: Cracking Archeology's Greatest Mystery by Christopher Knight and Alan Butler

The primary notion of the book is that the pyramids of Giza in Egypt, a few standing stone structural sites in the UK , and the arrangement of Washington D.C., the Pentagon are all created along a similar outline that mimics the stars and positions the rising of Sirius at Winter Solstice in pride of place. The big connection, for the authors, is Freemasonry, which they claim is far more ancient than its official starting date of 1717. The chief notion of this book is that Washington D.C. and the Pentagon were built by people who had knowledge passed down from Neolithic megaliths built in the UK via the Pyramids in Egypt. A lot of Before the Pyramids theories revolve around how prehistoric people determined the solstices – especially the winter solstice through observation of the rising of Sirius in the constellation Canis Major. Read this intriguing title with implications for work in astronomy at Mediakee.

The authors’ point that some archaeologists are still overly hidebound by the idea that ancient peoples were technologically “primitive” is well-taken. The idea in the book that the Milky Way and the Nile were seen to reflect each other by the Egyptians is an interesting one. The prehistoric astronomy angle is still fun and I liked the drawings (the colour photos of Egypt are also lovely). Fans of megalithic structures, the history of astronomy, and Freemasonry in the U.S. should find this worth a read.  Catch these fascinating findings at Mediakee.